This has been a long month in the Beadnell house. Some wonderful things happened, and some very very sad things. The great news is, the roof is finished and it looks amazing. Mark and friends got together and really did an amazing job getting the work done in two weekends and we couldn't be more pleased with it! Also in the good news department, I finally had my sinus surgery at the end of July and little by little every day I seem to get a bit better. I have had a couple of days this month without a headache (which is HUGE news because I have had a constant sinus headache since February). The girls are doing really well, McKenna is beginning Nursery School on September 8th and is getting very excited to start. We have an open house this Thursday and it's all she can talk about....I have a feeling Ms McKenna is going to give Teacher Patty a run for her money! Lilah is still Momma's little cuddle machine and is getting sweeter and more snugly each and every day (I thought the opposite was supposed to happen?!) . Oh what a lucky mom I am.
So now the sad news....
A very close friend of our little family passed away on August 9Th. Ashkan was a brilliant person and an absolute wonderful friend who will be very difficult to live without. Mark & I had the privilege and honor of working alongside Ashkan for 5 years at Plywood Supply, and I had the honor of spending time with him outside work, shopping, hanging out at the park with the girls and painting pottery. He was McKenna's first "boyfriend" and when she was about two yrs old she had the most adorable crush on him....following him all over the place and competing for his attention when I would bring her into work. He had a magnetic personality and anyone who had the opportunity to befriend him knew great things were in store for him in the future. The world is so much less colorful without him in it.....R.I.P Ashkan 1987-2009 love you forever!
Jaime

What a glorious day! Okay, so I will recap the rest of this lovely Independance Day weekend shortly, but first things first....Lilah went potty in the potty chair today! There was no fight involved....I asked if she wanted to sit on the big girl potty chair, she nodded yes and proceeded to the facilities (aka Marks throne). We took her diaper off, I sat her on the toilet, she sang herself a encouraging tune and presto peepee!
Harps began playing, angels sang the whole shebang.

So....what else happened this weekend?

Friday the NellNells stuck around the house and painted the storage shed. It went pretty quickly and I am happy to announce that this weekend our storage shed now looks like a million bucks. I hope our neighbors enjoy the colors sauteed mushroom and warm mahogany. Saturday we hung out with family to celebrate the 4th of July holiday. Jeni and Poppy Rich came over for lunch and afterwards we went on to Shawn and Karens house in Marysville for a delicious dinner. Then, home again, where we put the girls to bed entirely too late.

One last thing before I forget, about an hour after Lilah peed in the toilet she again let it flow...right after bathtime, but this time instead of using the facilities she peed on Marks lap.....am I a great potty trainer or what!?

All in all, a really nice weekend .

J

What a lovely weekend we had! On Saturday the girls, Aunt Jeni & I had a blast, walking around the mall and window shopping. We visted the girls favorite shops and McKenna even managed to charm her Aunt into buying her a princess goblet. (Aunt Jeni = a Sucker for a pretty toddler face).
Sunday (today)we had a ton of fun spending Fathers Day with Lilah & McKenna & of course Mark! We went down to Picnic Point in Edmonds and enjoyed a overcast day at the beach. The girls had a ton of fun playing in the sand, Lilah seemed to enjoy the beach the most...sand was in every crevase by the time we left. Shortly after the Beadnell clan returned home we all took a nap. Oh what a glorious moment in history, the girls were sleeping at the same time. And REALLY sleeping. Not trashing their rooms in the dark and pretending to sleep.
After the fabulous mid day nap, my dad aka "Poppy Rich" and Aunt Jeni came over to finish the Fathers Day celebration with a dinner. The girls ran around basking in the attention of the extra people within our house and were so excited to give Poppy the gift they hand picked for him. They bought him a white betta fish and lovingly named him "Leotard Bobby" (McKenna chose the name Leotard, Lilah chose the name Bobby). All in all, we had a nice day. Hopefully, Mark enjoyed himself. He is, after all the best dad the girls could ever ask for and the best husband ever.
I hope everyone else had as great of a weekend that we had. Happy Fathers Day to all you Fathers out there reading this blog...
Goodnight. Jaime

The past month has been very busy in our home. We have begun a few new home projects that have made things a bit hectic, and in our usual fashion...we have started them all at the same time. Our current projects include: painting our old shed and building a new shed. 4 weekends ago we began the re-painting of the shed with a coat of white primer after a thorough pressure washing. We of course, have done nothing to the shed since priming it, but I hope to get at least one coat of paint on it this weekend....the reason we haven't painted it yet you ask? Well, we had to start a new project of course! Why finish a project all the way through when you can compound the stress caused by said projects by beginning more? So the weekend after we primed, Mark had his sidekick, Jeffrey over and they began the daunting task of building the basement foundation for a second shed. It's going to be pretty cool when it's finished, but Mark and Jeff were definetly feeling the pain after the Memorial Day weekend was over. Hauling the cinder blocks and pouring cement was tough on their old/frail man bodies (it's funny and not funny all at the same time). Now, seeing as how we have two large projects in the works you would think that last weekend was emersed in completing them right?
In any other family yes, but here...not quite. Last weekend we had a multi family garage sale instead of fulfilling those tasks. Mark & I sold sooo much stuff it was crazy! Though it doesn't seem like it made much more room in our tiny rambler I am sure it did, and it feels good to remove some clutter. This weekend we are attending a birthday party for my cousins daughter Leah who turns one and hopefully after that comes painting.
So looking beyond the home repair, things are going great in our house. The girls are as precocious and wonderful as ever. Lilah is a little ham and says "cheese" now when you ask her to smile (seems she's always expecting us to take her picture, I wonder why?) And McKenna is quickly becoming a sneekier and smarter version of her parents...always getting her way by using her superior mind control techniques against us. I am doing......okay. I am getting quite use to having a sinus infection now and am on my 4th round of antibiotics which still doesn't seem to be working ugh! Hopefully that soon will be resolved when I meet with a specialist. That's all I have for now. It's 10 o'clock and officially 1/2 hr after bedtime. Love you all and hope this summer is treating you well, and always remember...if you need something to do...we have a couple of projects with your name on it. ~Jaime

So I have been thinking a bit lately about the Australian wildfires and the Koala Bear that was saved by a firefighter http://newsok.com/koala-saved-from-wildfire/article/3344993 (if you haven't read the article or youtube'd the video, you HAVE to it's so sweet). Well, as with all news I hear or see, it got me to thinking about my children, McKenna specifically.

It struck me at how much that adorable little koala bear reminder me of my McKenna. Big, beautiful eyes, round adorable little face, and this cuddly little body that you just want to wrap in hugs all day long. When I got to thinking about the similarities between McKenna and the koala bear, I realized that they also had quite a bit in common personality wise as well. A koala may look cute and fuzzy, but like McKenna, it could potentially bite your head off if you get up in it's business...it enjoys it's fierce independence and wants to eat the same thing day after day after day....



Well, the Koala/McKenna comparison was so much fun to think about, that (of course) it got me to thinking about Lilah and which animal she emulated. Oh how I wrestled with the many possibilities. She coos like a pigeon, and she will poop anywhere and everywhere..but she is sweet and never annoying...hmmmm.
I tossed around plenty of critters in my mind that almost fit the bill, and then KAPOW! My completely ridiculous epiphany hit...she is like a puppy! A puppy makes funny adorable faces, makes strange noises from each direction of their bodies regardless of awake or asleep, will eat anything on their plate or yours, and is lovey and faithful no matter how their day is going...that IS Lilah!!!

To sum up, I have way too much empty space in my brain to fill with thoughts such as written above.

At least my children are not PC's.

~Jaime

Our littlest bean is 1 year old! Thank you to all who celebrated and spoiled my little Lilah with your warm wishes and extravagant gifts on her birthday, January 25Th! We had a lot of fun seeing everyone and packing the home with everyone who loves Lilah. I was amazed at how many people actually attended (around 40) since the night before we saw some snow in and around Bothell.
We celebrated the special day with Winnie the Pooh decorations, I think Lilah loved the Pooh Bear balloons best of all, and although we had a few snafus before the party began (IE: Mark picking up someone else's balloons at the party store, "I thought it was weird you ordered little slugger balloons!" and the stinkin' cat sitting on the box of cupcakes), I don't think we could have asked for things to go more smoothly. :)
Now we are anticipating spring so we can put together the awesome teeter totter Lilah got. It says 7 kids can fit on it, which means if I evenly distribute my weight, I can go on by myself right?

Other good news is that Lilah's vocab has expanded a little more. She says Papa for Grandpa Rich, and bye bye now (in addition to mama and dada). McKenna is getting really good at counting and is beginning to understand the concept of addition. She can count items in sequence up to 13 with no trouble at all. Also, McKenna got to participate in her first day at nursery school last week at Jack & Jill's Nursery School. She really seemed to enjoy herself and is excited to start going there in fall. We plan on enrolling her for September classes every Tues & Thurs.

That's it for now. Thank you again everybody for being so great to our girls. We are so thankful for our family and friends and hope that you continue to fare well in these tough economic times.

Love Jaime